One of indoor rowing’s most ardent enthusiasts, and one of its best known personalities, personal trainer Neil Rhodes, believes the fitness he built up on the Indoor Rower saved his life when he survived a life threatening aneurysm recently.

Although he suffered the aneurysm - effectively a brain haemorrhage - whilst rowing, Neil’s doctors say his fitness saved his life and they have encouraged him back into training and back onto his beloved Indoor Rower as quickly as possible.

It’s a remarkable story and best told by Neil himself.

"I can remember getting on the Indoor Rower and setting the monitor for 1,000 metres," he explained. "I was feeling good, rowing faster than ever and looking forward to achieving a personal best at the World Indoor Rowing Championships in Boston.

"I was intending to row the piece at 1:40 pace, which I’ve done once or twice before. Apart from that, I can’t really remember anything else, it’s literally like I fell asleep. I felt no pain, can’t remember the ambulance journey or the hospital. In fact, the first thing that I can remember was waking up in the hospital bed with a bit of a headache.

"Without doubt, I owe an immense debt to my friends, racing driver Jamie Davies and his father Ron who I was training with at the time it happened. Their quick thinking and speed in getting help to me was definitely a very important factor in my survival.

"I was in hospital two weeks, had four days rest then went back to the gym and back to work, although I kept my exercise light. This was all with the full approval of the doctors. I monitor my blood pressure like a hawk now, and it is fine although I am still quite tired due to the effects of seven hours worth of anaesthesia, which takes about six weeks to get out of the system. Generally, I feel fine but I have lost a good bit of muscle tone and more than a stone in weight.

"The doctors said the aneurysm had nothing to do with being on the Indoor Rower and nothing to do with the fact that I was exercising. What the consultants said to me, in actual fact, was that this was destined to happen no matter what and it was my fitness and my friends that saved my life."

The fact that Neil survived and lived to tell the tale is remarkable enough, but a closer look at the statistics for this kind of occurrence show just how lucky the experienced and popular personal fitness instructor was.

"I suppose it’s human instinct to want to know how lucky you’ve been," he added. "But I was taken aback when one source said that 80% of people who this happens to simply don’t survive, and of those who do, more than half are left with some sort of permanent effect or disability. That staggered me and it put everything into context.

"I have been very, very lucky. Not only to survive but to survive with my quality of life still 100% intact."

The only medical explanation offered by experts for Neil’s amazing escape was his supreme fitness, something he has been working on for years, and demonstrating with his own unique brand of hardcore endurance racing - rowing one million metres in a matter of days.

With the aneurysm ‘clipped’ to stop it causing similar problems again, Neil is already planning his next great row.

"I see Nigel Gower is doing the one million-metre challenge. So later this year, when I’m back in tip-top shape, I plan to do the million again. This will be my fourth Million Metre Challenge and I know that I can go faster than my current time. You learn something each time you do it and that gives you confidence. I’ve always been comfortable with endurance, it’s just a matter of getting on with it."

Neil’s remarkable ability to get back into his everyday routine after such an alarming and life threatening incident has impressed family, friends, colleagues and even the medical profession, who admit they have seen few, if any, come through a trauma like this so physically unscathed. What is clear though, is that the incident has totally changed Neil’s outlook on life and only strengthened his resolve to stay fit and healthy.

"Everyone who has survived a traumatic experience learns a lesson from it and all of them have a message from it," he said. "This is mine. Live life today, because the only guarantee you’ve got is that you are going to be here today. Tell the ones you love how much you care about them and do it today.

"And training? Well, I have the utmost respect for anyone that does the training and puts themselves through it, whoever they are and however good they are. But they should pass this message around and it’s a clear one. Don’t train for a race, don’t train for a time and don’t train for vanity.

"Train for life."